


Three Words

by Anna Marie Darkholme (WierdAlienFantasies)



Series: And my heart crumbles to dust, but my body goes on living [1]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Hurt but no comfort, Nebula POV, Sister-Sister Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-23
Updated: 2018-09-23
Packaged: 2019-07-16 00:11:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16074293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WierdAlienFantasies/pseuds/Anna%20Marie%20Darkholme
Summary: Three words, three simple words is all it would take. She just doesn’t know which three.





	Three Words

**Author's Note:**

> Infinity war spoiler ahead; if you have still yet to see the film, read further at your own risk. Characters belong to Marvel/Disney, as do the lines taken direct from the movie.

She has endured worse. At this point, Nebula is not even sure whether those words are true, but they are all she has to keep her going. Thanos has taken so much from her, but she will not give him the satisfaction of breaking her. Sooner or later one of his soldiers _will_ make a mistake and she _will_ free herself and she _will_ hunt down her father again. He will not escape her wraith a second time. Thoughts of vengeance help somewhat but cannot fully block out the pain coursing through her systems. Strung out as she is, it will not be much longer before what little organics she retains start to fail. The prospect of losing more of herself to machinery chills her more than the looming threat of further pain. She will not let it show however. She will not break. She will not...

Her auditory sensors detect incoming footsteps. She tightens her jaw, prepares for whatever new torture Thanos has devised. It surely cannot be worse than what she is enduring. The complex interlocking parts that constitute the door to the room _(cell)_ she is being held in click open and what is left of Nebula’s heart feels as though it hurtles to the floor. Gamora, her sister, steps forward. Her eyes widen on seeing Nebula, filling with such genuine concern and fear for her that Nebula wishes she could turn away. It is bad enough her sister is seeing her at her weakest; to be confronted with a reminder of her feelings for her at the same time is too much.

_You will always be my sister._

Nebula will admit to nobody, least of all herself, how much strength she has drawn from those words since they were uttered. She had thought she had forgotten how to feel anything except rage and hatred, but in the presence of Gamora something stirs within her that she cannot name. It terrifies her, and yet at the same time she yearns for it. When Gamora speaks, her voice is heavy with that same emotion Nebula cannot name.

“Nebula.”

She tries to respond, tries to force out some warning. All that comes out of her mouth are pained gasps, rasping breathes far too shallow. It is maybe for the best. Nebula is dying (in every sense of the word) to tell Gamora something. Three words, three simple words is all it would take. She just doesn’t know which three, her painfully torn mind oscillating between extremes. She thinks maybe she doesn’t have to speak when Gamora reaches out to touch her shoulder. The contact is feather light, barely registering with her sensors. It is so unbearably gentle, unlike any touch Nebula has received except maybe one (the memory of which Nebula has filed away in the deepest part of her brain, so deep even Thanos can never touch it, never taint it).

Her body twitches against her will, rocking on her suspension. Gamora withdraws her hand, but doesn’t fully return it to her side. She stays facing Nebula, but addresses someone else.

“Don’t do this.”

It is only then Nebula becomes aware of the other presence in the room, so caught up as she was by Gamora’s arrival. For a heartbeat anger flares within her at her carelessness, but it quickly deepens into dark hatred for the other presence. Thanos, her captor and torturer. The man she has sworn to kill. She feels a slight twinge of pride despite herself at his next words.

“Some time ago your sister snuck aboard this ship to kill me.”

“Please don’t do this.”

Gamora’s voice cuts in, begging. Nebula has heard her voice break in that way just once, back on Ego when her sister realised the Terran Quill had been left behind. She doesn’t know what to do with this, what to do with these emotions she never asked for. It seems she has finally succeeded in breaking Gamora. Of course the universe would mock her, would make it so that it was through no design of her own and at a time when she no longer wished to see her sister suffer. Thanos would pay for this, would suffer just a bit longer before she ended him for what he was doing to Gamora. As her thoughts turn back to him, she is aware his booming voice has continued.

“She nearly succeeded. So I brought her here. To talk.”

He advances forward, and once again Nebula wishes she could talk to spit out a thousand curses at him. She sees him wave his accursed gauntlet, has but a moment to process what that means. Then her body is being pulled further apart, and the agony wracking her goes from white hot to utterly blinding, all consuming. She can’t even stifle the screams, the shrieks tinged with fear because she honestly does not know if this time he plans to kill her.

She can barely hear her sister’s quiet plea, her words muffled by horror.

“Stop it, stop it.”

She is not lucid enough to see what happens next, but through the supernovas of agony exploding in her head she catches the words.

“I swear to you on my life, I never found the soulstone.”

Abruptly the pain returns to all-encompassing but manageable. Something is not right though, an itching inside Nebula’s head that fills her with dread. Against her will pathways in the cybernetic half of her brain activate, project outwards as Thanos warps her body to his needs. Her privacy, her sense of self are ripped violently from her. The violation makes her shake with rage and self-hatred. A fairly recent memory plays out, recalling one of her last meetings with Gamora. The secrets her sister entrusted her with play out, and she feels like she has betrayed that trust. She cannot bear to look at her sister, fearing what she would find laid bare in her expression. Instead she silently begs for it all to be over, for some miracle that she doesn’t believe in to end this living hell.

Thanos turns his attention from her, disregards her in favour of her sister as he has always done. Nebula cannot find it in herself to be angry though, not anymore. She is so tired, tired of the pain both physical and deeper. She hopes Gamora is stronger than her. As much as she hates to acknowledge it, her sister truly was always the better of them. At least that means she may yet be able to deny Thanos.

“Where. Is. The soulstone.”

Thanos’s words have a dread finality to them. Her sister’s face twists in pain, pain Nebula has never seen before. Not even when her body was torn apart or beaten half to oblivion did Gamora’s face betray such agony, such anguish. She looks close to giving in, close to breaking. Desperate Nebula pushes through her agony, gazes directly at Gamora and shakes her head. Even such a slight movement is nigh unbearable, but she has to let her sister know she must not give in. The gesture is cut short as Thanos shifts his hand once more and the pain returns, worse than ever before. Nebula is no longer aware of anything, cannot even perceive her own screams. All that exists is the pain, surrounding her, closing in on her, choking her.

Suddenly it stops, and Nebula is left shuddering. Her wet, broken gasps are disgustingly weak but she cannot fight them. Gamora approaches her, and Nebula can tell that she has told Thanos what he needed to know. She closes her eyes, unable to bear the anger and disappointment her sister will surely have for her. She is taken by surprise when a soft hand gently shifts one of her face plates back in place. The surprise deepens as the hand stays in place, caressing her cheek. She feels tears against her will break from her eyes, trickle down her face in time to her broken sobs. The hand does not move, does not flinch or recoil. Softly, painfully softly her sister’s voice whispers.

“The stone is on Vormir.”

Thanos’s voice shatters through the quiet.

“Show me.”

Nebula has time to open her eyes, take in her sister’s face so close to hers. For a moment, everything stops. She takes in every detail of her sister’s face. The markings that would have set her apart from other individuals had she grown up on Zenhoberi. The single tear that has escaped her carefully crafted facade, _a tear shed for her_. But it is her eyes that Nebula commits to her memory. They glimmer with a thousand unspoken words, with apologies and assurances and promises and that one emotion, that one cursed emotion that has just cost the galaxy so much. Nebula knows with a hateful certainty that same cursed emotion shines in her own eyes back at her sister.

The next second Thanos waves his hand and he and her sister are gone. Nebula wants to scream with frustration but words are still beyond her shattered body. Even now that it is too late, she is unsure which three words she would have uttered to her sister.

 

_Don’t give in._

_Kill me please._

_I love you._

**Author's Note:**

> I cried four times during Infinity War (well five times if you count Maria Hill's death in the post credit scene). Once when Peter tried to kill Gamora as he had promised; once when Thanos sacrificed Gamora on Vormir; once when Wanda killed Vision to deny Thanos the stone; and once during the scene in which this piece is set. I realise these scenes are not necessarily the obviously 'tear jerking' ones, but I am a huge GotG fan and generally a sap for romance and families so this film in general hurt me in many ways.
> 
> I love both Gamora and Nebula so much, honestly their character development in GotG vol 2 still makes me so happy. They deserve better, and they certainly deserved more than what Infinity War gave them. There is also not enough Nebula-Gamora sister fics out there; their relationship is complex but strangely beautiful and deserves more attention. I can't praise Zoe Saldana and Karen Gillan enough for their portrayals of the characters, their acting brings them both to life beautifully. 
> 
>  
> 
> I may or may not have more Infinity Wars inspired works in progress, so watch this space!


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